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Oh, the frustration is real.
Here’s how my Monday went at “the office”:
The post to Slack was after a trying for an hour to print a sheet of labels from a CSV file I had. No joke, I couldn’t do it. I downloaded a ton of apps, I even tried web services. I went to Screens to try and create a PDF file on the remote Mac mini, but would have had to install way too much software.
Ken Case: One of the ways in which we can do that is to improve the way we interact with the apps to have a more efficient user experience. For example, we can make better use of iPad Pro’s larger screen by replacing some of the popovers in our interface with slide-in panels on the…
Ken Case:
One of the ways in which we can do that is to improve the way we interact with the apps to have a more efficient user experience. For example, we can make better use of iPad Pro’s larger screen by replacing some of the popovers in our interface with slide-in panels on the left and right (as in the screenshot above), so you don’t have to keep opening and closing them every time you want to use them. (This will debut later this year in OmniGraffle 3 and OmniOutliner 3 for iOS.)
I am so looking forward to OmniOutliner 3, I think OmniOutliner is the best product The Omni Group makes. It is also, by far the best outlining app on iOS.
But it has quite a way it can go.
Marius Masalar on OmniFocus users: The second group of people manage their tasks like monks manage their religion. Completing tasks is almost an unhappy occurence for them, because the more they get done, the less they have to tag, file, order, annotate, schedule, and otherwise micromanage. As far as I can tell, this second group…
Marius Masalar on OmniFocus users:
The second group of people manage their tasks like monks manage their religion. Completing tasks is almost an unhappy occurence for them, because the more they get done, the less they have to tag, file, order, annotate, schedule, and otherwise micromanage.
As far as I can tell, this second group are who OmniFocus works best for.
Spot on.
Supremely comfortable pants.
These pants were launched on Kickstarter as “the best hot weather travel pants” you can wear and they have all sorts of “travel features” to boot. I wanted them for the look, I have a pair of light gray jeans that I love to wear in the summer, so I thought I would pick these up to replace those pants.
The pants are a blend with a cotton and a bunch of other things with a goal of making them durable, comfortable, breathable and all the other things you hear about travel focused pants. I’ve had these pants long enough now that I can speak a little more to how they feel to wear.
I really want that Westworld tablet/phone thing. Also some follow up on Workflow.
## Some F/U
In the [last iPad Report](https://brooksreview.net/2017/01/ipad-report-011617/), I talked about building a small app within [Workflow](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/workflow-powerful-automation/id915249334?mt=8&uo=4&at=1l3v36d). One of the issues I cited was the inability to pull from something like a `csv` for my lists, and instead needing to build the list again inside Workflow. As I feared, I was wrong and this can be done, it’s just that — like with most things Workflow — it’s rather opaque. (Workflow needs someone working there full time explaining how to build things, they would double their sales.)
Ari Weinstein (co-founder of Workflow) reached out to me on Twitter to tell me just how to do it. He provided [this sample Workflow](https://twitter.com/AriX/status/821074770141642752). The Workflow pulls from iCloud Drive and then parses the text file as a list (with new items being on their own line). This should be able to work with a `csv` too, but I’ve modded my `csv` too much to test, but I did try with a text file and it was magic.
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Protecting your privacy with full time VPN, and a massive amount of annoyances.
I watched the Snowden movie a little while back now, and after watching it I had that paranoid itch. Being iOS only there is very little I can do to make my systems more private and it seemed that the one gaping hole was my web connection itself. Which spurred me to think about getting a VPN service to run full time while I used my devices, even when I am on my home network. Both to encrypt my data streams, but also to better anonymize the web traffic.
So for the past few weeks I have been testing through three different setups:
PIA was the only one new to me, but it gets very high marks for quality, speed, and privacy — so I figured I better test it. My server encrypts the traffic, but does nothing about anonymizing it — in other words instead of coming from my device, it’s coming from a server I clearly own. Cloak is one of the easiest systems to use, works well, and while not being privacy minded, does what I label a “solid job” with it.
Staying informed is now becoming a job.
A large part of my morning routine, as it likely is for most of you, is to catch up on the news I might have missed the night before. A few years ago this felt like a much simpler task: some RSS, some Twitter, done. I felt well informed using just a few tools and getting news which was highly tailored to me, or what I thought mattered to me.
Fast forward to 2017, and my routine has changed greatly. I can’t use Twitter for news — hell I can hardly stand to read it. Twitter is a cesspool of bullshit, attention grabbing links, and it’s not where you get quality news — rather Twitter is where you get the same bullshit you would see on cable news.
Let’s talk about scripting on iOS.
## Building an iOS Workflow App
One thing I used to do a lot on my Mac was to build small apps inside Keyboard Maestro which would help me accomplish really tedious shit. That’s something which is considerably harder to do on iOS — requiring you either use [Pythonista](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pythonista-3/id1085978097?mt=8&uo=4&at=1l3v36d), and thus learn Python, or use [Workflow](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/workflow-powerful-automation/id915249334?mt=8&uo=4&at=1l3v36d) and deal with a clunky UI and a limited tool set.
*I’m not bitter, I’m just disappointed.*
Still, I wanted to build one of these little apps this past week — both to see if I could actually build it, and secondly to help me out with a fun little idea I had. The idea was very simple: I have three different lists of things and I want to be given a random items off of the specified list. Nothing earth shattering, and something I could easily do on my Mac.
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Kevin Kortum follows up on his tweets to me showing how to reprogram the MiniVan: I apparently wasn’t the only person as Ben Brooks spoke about his troubles and I offered some assistance knowing how frustrating it can be if you just misunderstand a single step in what is provided by The Van Keyboards programming…
Kevin Kortum follows up on his tweets to me showing how to reprogram the MiniVan:
I apparently wasn’t the only person as Ben Brooks spoke about his troubles and I offered some assistance knowing how frustrating it can be if you just misunderstand a single step in what is provided by The Van Keyboards programming guide. I decided to put something together that goes into a little more detail than those tweets so hopefully anyone can do it without too much trouble.
Fantastic. As a buddy said to me on Twitter, setting up your computer to reprogram takes more time than anything else. One thing I would add, is that on the MiniVan keyboard hex making tool, you’ll need to right click the keys to change them around. There’s some special options there which I wasn’t aware of, and caused me a lot of frustration.
Dan Provost: This has the advantage of essentially having two full height iPad apps, side by side. Now, imagine Apple doing the exact same thing, but with the iPad mini.” It’s perfectly normal to have three iPads, right?
Dan Provost:
This has the advantage of essentially having two full height iPad apps, side by side.
Now, imagine Apple doing the exact same thing, but with the iPad mini.”
It’s perfectly normal to have three iPads, right?
Kevin Kortum reached out on Twitter and solved the mystery of MiniVan keyboard programming in just three tweets. I just got done reprogramming the keyboard and it worked like a charm. Big thanks to him. (Now I just have to deal with the fact that I not only need a Mac for this, but that…
Kevin Kortum reached out on Twitter and solved the mystery of MiniVan keyboard programming in just three tweets. I just got done reprogramming the keyboard and it worked like a charm. Big thanks to him. (Now I just have to deal with the fact that I not only need a Mac for this, but that I am going to be messing around with this quite a lot.)
I’d probably love this keyboard more, if I knew where all the damned keys were.
When writing about the Pok3r, I left out a rather embarrassing thought I had running around my head which goes something like this: I should really find another keyboard, even smaller, that I can take with me on trips. Insane, I know, but they do make them. They are called 40% keyboards (or 45% or a variety of other names, which makes them hard to find) and they are kind of insane themselves.
They do not have a number row for starters, and they cram all sorts of other things away in modifier keys, but since they are all custom, you never know what is where until you memorize it all. Or you can reprogram the entire board, which means you learn your layout and not someone else’s.
Ok, let’s go down the rabbit hole that is Apple Pencil note taking apps.
## Drawing Apps
For a couple of months there has been one post I have been putting off writing, this post, about drawing/writing/note apps for the iPad Pro. One of my key uses of the smaller 9.7″ iPad Pro is as a writing tablet during meetings/calls/research — using it as stand in for my trusty Baron Fig.
I’ve tried many, but certainly not all, of the apps which could fit the bill as a sheet of paper for my Apple Pencil. To answer the immediate question as to which is best, all I can say is that it very much depends on what you want and need to do with these apps. Instead let me share thoughts on the apps I currently have on my iPad Pro:
– [Inkflow](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/inkflow-visual-notebook/id519524685?mt=8&uo=4&at=1l3v36d): this app has some of the more compelling screenshots in the App Store, but it falls short of them in practice. The UI is clean and simple, and the icon is solid. The choices of writing tools is minimal, but still useful. I love how quickly the app launches and is ready to go, how I can easily add pages to any of the “books” the app uses to organize things. There is also not a lot of pressure sensitivity in the app, which is good if you don’t want to pay much attention, but bad if you want things to look nice. I look at Inkflow the same as I do a Field Notes: it’s not the greatest, but it’s really handy and holds a lot of random shit. Inkflow stays on my home screen as a tool to capture the random things you might find in my Field Notes.
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It’s never as cut and dry as you assume it is.
It’s never as cut and dry as you assume it is.
Manton Reece on his new project: I’m writing a book about independent microblogging, and launching a publishing platform called Micro.blog. I’ve had a lot of chats with Manton, not only about this project, but our general philosophical agreements about many things privacy and “owning your own stuff” related. I backed this project, and in fact…
Manton Reece on his new project:
I’m writing a book about independent microblogging, and launching a publishing platform called Micro.blog.
I’ve had a lot of chats with Manton, not only about this project, but our general philosophical agreements about many things privacy and “owning your own stuff” related. I backed this project, and in fact (as of this writing) it has nearly doubled its funding goal. Even so, I think you should back it if you can.
This is not another App.net fiasco. His service and the ideas behind it are 1000% better (well that’s not really possible, but it is better, a lot better). It’s the service I use to cross post from here to here.
That’s all fine and well for a writer, but not for a far more normal person.
## I Can’t Use an iPad, But Thanks
Last week, I published [this article](https://brooksreview.net/2016/12/evovling-ipad-desktop-usage/) on the overall state of desktop iPad usage. The best part about publishing articles like this is fielding the myriad of questions which inevitably hit my inbox — while I can’t get to them all, I do try to read them all. Here’s the most common email/DM/tweet response I got:
> I do XYZ thing every day, and because of that it’s rather obvious I can’t use an iPad. I think iPads are amazing and I love to screw around on my iPad, but my Mac is essential. I wish I could use an iPad, but it’s just not an option for me/most people who aren’t writers.
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Sam Gerstenzang: Apple is quietly getting very good at shipping very small computers that charge very rapidly, and thus can be unanchored ––unlike Google Home or Amazon Echo. Over time, as power and size requirements decrease, a direct internet connection might add value. But for now, Bluetooth allows a connection to your phone (which is…
Sam Gerstenzang:
Apple is quietly getting very good at shipping very small computers that charge very rapidly, and thus can be unanchored ––unlike Google Home or Amazon Echo. Over time, as power and size requirements decrease, a direct internet connection might add value. But for now, Bluetooth allows a connection to your phone (which is still quite obviously and self-consciously a computer) and that’s enough.”
The rapid charging is, to me, the most amazing parts about both the Pencil and the AirPods. How can they last that long, but charge that fast?
After a year of iPad Pro usage, here’s some thoughts about using it as a desktop machine.
As I write this, it is a frigid Saturday morning, the type of morning where you just don’t want to think about going outside but you also kind of do want to go outside just to feel the piercing cold on your lungs. It has been over a year of full time iPad usage for me, and in that year I have had my iPad in a plethora of configurations. From the simple Smart Keyboard Cover to nearly duct taping it to the wall. What I have come to realize over this past year, is how portable and manageable the iPad as a desktop machine is.
A bit of cleverness, not new technology: “Now when people in Egypt or the United Arab Emirates send a Signal message, it’ll look identical to something like a Google search,” Marlinspike says. “The idea is that using Signal will look like using Google; if you want to block Signal you’ll have to block Google.” This…
A bit of cleverness, not new technology:
“Now when people in Egypt or the United Arab Emirates send a Signal message, it’ll look identical to something like a Google search,” Marlinspike says. “The idea is that using Signal will look like using Google; if you want to block Signal you’ll have to block Google.”
This is so fucking clever. Love it.
Morning routines and iPads, focusing on syncing for 2017, and Bears.
## App News Reading
A couple of months ago we moved into a new house, different location, different style, but more importantly for the purposes of this post: bigger, and two stories. Our old house was all one story and thus we couldn’t ever spread out very far from each other. In the new house, we can, and we do.
Practically speaking I knew this would be different, but I didn’t realize the impact it would have on my morning routine. That took over a month to settle in to something new, and now that I have — more than ever — it has become apparent to me how little I use my iPads in the morning.
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